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Noah stared at the dummy. The dummy stared back.

HIT IT, Lazarus said. His voice held a low, rumbling, breathing quality that Noah hadn't yet heard.

"It. It kind of looks like a person," Noah mumbled weakly.

HIT IT WITH ME. I WANT TO BITE IT, Lazarus instructed. He sounded patient, but Noah could feel the straining eagerness that waited just below the surface, a gathering anticipatory urge that made Noah's teeth feel strange, like they were vibrating faintly in their sockets. I WANT TO BITE IT, Lazarus said again, and yanked, and Noah understood suddenly what the weapon had meant when he said he pulled.

It wasn't a physical sensation, not really; it was kind of like stepping down the last step of a staircase in the dark and finding that you were a step short, that kind of bone-rattling thumping jolt, but entirely mental, entirely internal. It was uncomfortable and unsettling, and Noah stumbled back a pace, away from the dummy. "Don't do that, Laz," he said, somewhere between plaintive and panicked.

I WANT TO BITE IT. Lazarus accompanied his statement with a low, rolling, burbling growl, and Noah shivered. He stepped forward and swung the cleaver awkwardly against the dummy's shoulder. The blade ripped a hole in the burlap, but didn't sink in.

Noah jumped and spun to face the source of the voice, his left arm coming up in a rapid movement to hold the cleaver defensively up across his body, sharp end pointed in the general direction of the person who'd addressed him. A moment later, he looked abashed and lowered the weapon. "Oh my god I'm sorry, you startled me," he apologized hurriedly. "Sure, yeah, uh, I don't really know what I'm doing, he just, he says he wanted to bite - Laz, um, what are you," he trailed off, his eyes going perplexedly to the weapon in his hand.

Lazarus was growling, low and bubbly and ferocious, and Noah's spine felt weird and shivery and tingly between his shoulderblades. I SMELL SOMETHING, Laz growled.

"Yeah. Um. Zombie dog, he says."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.... The prickling sensation along Noah's spine intensified as he registered the stylized canine head on the stranger's staff weapon. "Yours too?" he hazarded weakly.

Lazarus started barking. Noah winced. Though the barking was entirely silent, it made it ridiculously difficult to hear his own thoughts. "Oh my god. Lazarus, shut up," he begged.

"Barking," Noah confirmed gloomily. "Uh. Does this happen a lot? Like, should I brace myself or something?" He pressed the heel of his free hand against his eye. "How can something that's not actually making any sound be so loud?"

DOG, I SMELL DOG, I KNEW! Lazarus broke out in a fresh volley of barking.

"Laz, he's not going to, I don't know, take your bone or something, why are you barking," Noah tried.

DOG!

"Okay. Right. I guess logic isn't going to make a dent in this. Barking thing."

The sudden fit of laughter startled Lazarus out of it, and the weapon wound down into growling interspersed with gruff, damp barks. Noah sighed deeply with relief. "Thanks. Uh ... good dog, Laz," but he sounded uncertain about the last part.

He nodded fervently to the comment. "Not really what I expected. I kind of wish I could see their body language, you know, so I could tell if all that was just, like, new dog new dog or if it was hostile, it's hard to tell when I can't see him. I mean. I can feel him, but. It's weird."

DOG, Laz put in again, and his growl notched up.

"Oh, jesus, Laz, don't start again, you're going to make me crazy."

"We're not a - " A deep snarl sounded in Noah's head. "We're not threatening you," Noah amended hastily. "We're really not. I'm sorry I pointed him at you, I don't know what I was thinking, I just kinda reacted. I don't usually wave knives at strangers, um, this is just sounding worse and worse the longer I talk, isn't it," he sighed.

He blinked a few times. Is this, can you hear me okay like this, Laz?

The weapon interrupted his growl to say, OF COURSE I CAN.

"Thanks. Now I feel kind of dumb ... "

"Thanks," Noah grumbled, more sarcastically, his shoulders hunching in defensive embarrassment. "Nobody told me."

He held Lazarus at an awkward angle, giving Al a nervous look and stammering a little. "I don't, um, I don't know what I'm doing, what if I hit you? He looks kind of weird but he's really sharp, I mean, not that I think you're bad at it or something, I just, like, what if I hit your hand or something while you were blocking? Isn't that dangerous?"

Noah stared at Al apprehensively. It looked like there was no way he was getting out of this one, and anyway, he reminded himself, he was in training to be a superhero, and he was going to have to fight sometime. He just hadn't expected to be facing off against one of his allies.

"Okay, I can do that. I can." He took a deep breath, visibly braced himself, and raised Lazarus again, awkwardly angling the blade towards Al. "I've never been in a fight," he confessed in a very small voice.